MOTOR

'The Hammer' nails down his first Flip Merwin Memorial race

Tim Johnson
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
M.G. Gajewski

RIB MOUNTAIN -  The driver known as "The Hammer" finally nailed down the win in a stock car feature race that has eluded him for more than a decade. 

M.G. Gajewski, who earned the nickname for his hard-driving style, led for all but roughly 15 of the 75-lap for his first title in the Flip Merwin Memorial. The Super Late Model feature was one of the highlights of the schedule at State Park Speedway on Thursday. 

The 52-year-old Wausau man has been racing for nearly three decades and won a season title at State Park before. But Gajewski had never before finished first in the Flip Merwin or the other two memorial races at the speedway — the Larry Detjens and the Wayne "Lodi" Loldholz. 

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"It means the world to me," Gajewski said. "I think this is my 28th year (driving) and I have never won a big race (at State Park). We've been close before, a couple thirds and seconds.

He broke through in the race that honored his friend, who was killed in a snowmobile racing crash in 2003.

 

Fans at State Park Speedway signal a No. 1 and No. 5 in honor of the numbers for former drivers Dave Lashua and Flip Merwin, respectively. during parade route before races started Thursday.  Both drivers were honored with memorial races during the night.

 

"Flip was just an awesome guy," Gajewski said. "I don't think there's anybody he hated or hated him. He was just a great, down-to-earth guy. I knew him and worked with him. This just means a lot to win this tonight."

Gajewski took his first lead 12 laps into the race and finally lost it after a restart with 25 laps left. He regained the lead with 20 laps left and held off the field the rest of the way even with a pair of late restarts, the last coming with nine laps remaining. Jeremy Lepak and Derek Kraus finished second and third, respectively.

The veteran driver credited his crew for the win.

"We have been running good all year but just haven't had the right circumstances. Tonight it paid off," Gajewski said. "Tonight, the longer we ran, the better (the car) was."

Gajewski controlled the majority of the race, but never really felt comfortable with any lead. 

"With all those cautions (that) were coming out (late), I started to wonder," Gajewski said. "When we got the caution with nine to go I didn't think I was going to be able to hold Kraus off."

Kraus, a 15-year-old from Stratford, won the race last year and was coming off a fifth-place finish during a road course race at the Sonoma Raceway on June 24 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event. Kraus is a rookie driver in the series and was back in his home state for the first time in two weeks.

Kraus started the Merwin near the back of the pack but overcame some early trouble and ran as high as second near the end of the race. 

"We had a good run coming back through the field and passed a lot of cars," Kraus said. "Hopefully we can use this as a learning curve and be a little more patient and do better next time."

The Merwin was one of two memorial races at State Park on Thursday. 

Travis Volm won the Dave Lashua Memorial in the Super Stock feature race. Lashua, who was a series regular in the Pure Stock division at the speedway, died in December.

"He was an awesome guy, someone who would take the shirt off his back for you and help any way he could," Volm said. "To win this race in honor of him is undescribable. He was just a great guy."

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or twjohnson@gannett.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11